Ratodero, Sindh: There is no facility of PCR Hepatitis test for the patients of seven upper Sindh districts which is essential before the start of Hepatitis B & C treatment.
The largest teaching hospital of upper Sindh, Chandka Medical College Hospital (CMCH) had the costly PCR machine provided by the Director General Health Services Sindh which caught fire and was burnt to ashes on March 18.
Dr. Abdul Majeed Chutto, Program Manager for Hepatitis Prevention & Control Program (Chief Ministers Initiative) had promised while talking to Media of providing a new machine at CMCH in a month but no machine has been provided yet and all the samples of more than seven districts of Upper Sindh are being sent to Mirpurkhas for analyzing, sources disclosed to PPI.
The districts affected by non-availability of this facility include Shikarpur, Kambar-Shahdadkot, Khairpur, Dadu, Jacobabad, Kandhkot, Ghotki, Mirpur Mathelo and Larkana.
A large number of hepatitis cases are reported from different districts and according to obtained figures 652 PCR tests of these districts for HCV Qualitative were performed in the month of March 2011 out of which 288 were detected positive and 364 were negative cases.
Out of 211 samples 103 were HCV positive of Larkana district alone and out 124 cases 60 were HCV positive of Kambar-Shahdadkot, 18 out of 39 of Khairpur, 50 out of 136 of Dadu, 12 out of 23 of Jacobabad, 4 out of 7 of Kandhkot, and 31 out of 58 of Mirpur Mathelo. Ten cases were detected out of 54 in Central Jail, Larkana.
As far as HBV Quantitative is concerned 59 out of 120 were positive of Larkana district alone and 128 out of 334 samples were detected positive belong to the same districts.
The data shows that 42 were detected as suffering from HBV out of 115 of Kambar-Shahdadkot, 8 out of 37 from Dadu, 1 out of 3 from Jacobabad, 7 out of 19 from Kandhkot, 1 out of 9 from Ghotki, and 10 out of 31 from Central Jail, Larkana. No samples of HCV was received from Ghotki and likewise Mirpur Mathelo health sector administrators did not send a single sample for HBV test during the month of March 2011.
In February 2011 as many as 268 cases were detected suffering from HCV out of 679 and HBV positive cases were 88 out of 241 belonging to the same districts.
According to a retired professor of medicine the injection interferon, being supplied by the provincial Program Manager are of inferior quality as these have been procured from China and added that many patients have again been found after completion of six month treatment and PCR tests that the disease is still active in their body and they are then advised to go for proper and accurate costly treatment which many of them cannot afford at all.
He further said that some multinational companies are manufacturing original injections but due to unknown reasons these are not procured by the government.
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